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" Alone "
(Previous Post was Jessica's "The Best Surprises Come in Small Packages")
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Setting: VALLA ROYAL, H-0101
Stardate: 63077.0340

The young woman laid unconscious on the floor… a thing fabric hid her battered, vulnerable form… and her mind had sought refuge in the only place it could.

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Setting: Dreamscape

The young woman stood in a perfect, endless darkness that stretched out into infinity in every direction… if there had been a floor beneath the redhead's feet there had been no way for her to know.

"Am I dead?" the Dado girl inquired.

"Why is it that you always have to start that way?" a female voice from the young woman's past replied, a voice that she had not heard in a very long time… a voice that she had never expected to ever hear again.

"Maybe because somewhere deep inside of me I want to join you… to be with you."

"One day… just not today," the reply came, no form having claimed ownership of the voice.

"So I am still alive?" Samantha asked… a faint hint of hope present in her soft spoken words.

"For the time being," another voice replied, this one being of a man who belonged not to the young woman's past but rather to her present.  The voice had been that of the man responsible in many ways for everything that had happened and likely would happen… as the Commanding Officer of the NEW ALEXANDRIA complex Admiral Koniki had in many ways been at the source of all their problems.

"I left," the redheaded woman stated rather coldly.

"Your body may have… your mind never did.

"I lost everything because of you… I have nothing to go back to."

"Care to be proven wrong?" the voice stated condescendingly.  "What about Erik, you and he are good friends," as the name of Captain Morningstar had been mentioned his face appeared through the darkness as if a veil had been pushed aside.

"Two Captains talking about their missions and the people they lost on them does not make friends."

"What about Eve, Hex, Akira or Elliot… surely they are more than simple subordinates to you?"  Their faces appeared to join that of the Native American CO, each taking position around the young woman.

"I failed them," Rikar admitted tearfully.  "They would be better off without me."

"You know, that self-pity thing doesn't suit you in the least.  You never would have been as good a mentor to Maya if you had been like this," the Shillian's face appeared and joined the others; all of them slowly orbiting the redheaded woman could not not help but meet their inquisitive gazes.

"She's a unique case… alone in a world of strangers."

"Guess you can say the same thing about Elan… he too is alone… granted not in the same manner as Maya, but his case is just as unique," the Oltharian's face joined that of the others.

"These are just faces… illusions… memories of people I knew… of people I failed."

"We are much more," Erik said as the image of his face flowed into a full humanoid form, one that reflected the man's proud heritage.

"We are friends," Eve added, the Counselor appearing in the dress that she had worn on the VALLA ROYAL before it began to change into the standard Starfleet uniform.

"We are shipmates," Hex contributed, the proud in her voice hinting that there had been something special about all of them being on the same ship.

"We are comrades," Elliot chimed in, indicating that the link they all shared went beyond times of peace and tranquility.

"We are a family," Akira continued, the soft gentleness of her voice pointing to all of them being there for one another no mater what.

"Although we may feel alone from time to time," Maya said with a tender smile.

"There is always someone that is there for us… when we need them most," Elan concluded with a universal peace in his voice that only he could have managed.

"So I am not alone?" Samantha asked, this time unable to hold back the tears.

"You never were," Sabrina replied as she appeared from behind the images of the crew that had come to surround the troubled young woman.

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Sabrina Jones

Samantha Rikar
Dabo Girl
VALLA ROYAL

Once known as…
Captain Sabrina Rikar
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501